Identity not included
by KuramaG33
Summary: When a good guy goes bad, it's up to Botan to play Rekai Tantei and solve the case! Will contain action/adventure/romance, and mature content.
1. Chapter 1

Hey it's KG 33 here, trying to get a first start on writing fanfiction, only about 10 years late to the party. This is going to be bad, so get ready! Expect mature content, romance, adventure, action, drama, everything I could think of and I smashed it all into one story.

Chapter one

"BOTAN! WAKE UP THIS INSTANT AND OPEN THE DOOR!"

The woman being summoned was only vaguely aware of the shouting occurring outside of her bedroom, as she was far too busy in her subconscious sleep space. In her dream, she was looking deep into those bottomless chocolate eyes, underscored by impish grin, and she lie beneath her dream lover in perfect ecstasy. Botan lifted her hand to run it through the soft loose black hair, and smiled. In repose together on a bed of the softest clouds, she stroked her lover's face and sighed.

"Oh, this has been such a wonder-"

The dream was shattered as the knocking near the bottom of her door became banging at the top.

"BOTAN! NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE SLEEPING, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!"

The startled bluenette sat up in her futon and sent a sleepy glare towards the door. Of all the people to ruin her glorious moment! Gathering herself in the duvet, she opened the door to her suite with a flourish, almost taking a fist to the forehead as she did.

"BO-Oh! Botan! Finally! Don't you know how rude it is to keep me waiting when we have an emergency in the middle of the night? It's almost like you don't even respect me!" Koenma scolded her, in his teenage form, looking rather worse for the wear after being roused from his bed just a half hour before. His hair was mussed and his clothes wrinkled, as though he'd pulled them on from the floor in his hurry to rally the troops. It made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, she had never seen her boss in such a wild way.

Botan, clutching her bedclothes robe, eyed him warily. "What's happened, Lord Koenma? It must be serious for you to be waking up and waking me up and -"

Koenma interupted her, "We've had an escape from the Reikai Prison, cell block S! We have an unknown number of unknown subjects on the move, all hell is breaking loose downstairs and you're up here sleeping! Didn't you hear the alarm?"

Botan pursed her lips and lifted her index finger to them, looking up at the ceiling where her alarm light was dangling with a dent in its case that could have only come from her trusty metal bat.

"No no, I didn't hear it at all!" She stepped forward to keep him in the doorway, and unable to follow her upwards glance as he had leaned forward to try and do so. She thought back on the reason she had attacked the light and flushed, "Lord Koenma, sir, I'll get dressed and meet you in your office in fifteen minutes." She mentally pushed aside the romantic fancy her subconscious had spawned, deciding to put it out of her mind for the time being.

The undeniably stressed prince glared at her, "Botan you'd better make it five minutes." His voice got shrill, and his composure appeared to be slipping, "This is serious and it's only a matter of time before they get out of the lockdown! There's an SDF officer at the end of the hall to escort you! I'll explain the rest as soon as you get downstairs."

With that, he turned in a flurry of royal blue and strode quickly down the hallway. When Botan peered around the door frame, she could see the wild blonde hair of Lieutenant Oho waiting for her a few meters away, and she popped into her room to hurriedly dress.

About 10 minutes later, she was pushing open the door to Koenma's office, her signature pink kimono in place and the curlers drawn her from her hair. The high ponytail she usually wore was absent, and instead her hair hung in a long sleep fuzzed braid down her back. Her anxiety felt like a blast of cool air over her skin as she shuffled into the room crowded with nearly a dozen members of the SDF, a messenger for Emperor Enma, and a small group of frantic ogres. Koenma was stood behind his desk with his viewing screen on, shouting orders over the din of people talking and whatever was occurring on screen. When Botan finally made her way through the crowd and was able to see what they saw, she covered her mouth in horror. The twisted metal, broken glass, blood and gore was strewn over a barely recognizable hallway of the cell block S, where spirit world's most dangerous criminals were housed. On screen, a flash of long ragged silver hair flickered across the view and disappeared into another cell, almost too fast for her to see.

When she was close enough to touch Koenma, he rounded on her with a crazed look, "It's bad Botan. Really bad. We have no contact on the inside, everyone's dead. They're all dead. Even the prisoners. And the escapee... No, the intruder is going to break through the lockdown defense within the hour. I'd say it looks like knows the weak point first hand, but I didn't think that he'd ever been down to the dungeon before. We're not even sure how he got in."

Botan's eyes rounded, and they both turned to the screen.

"Got in? You mean to say someone broke in just to escape?" Her fear was palpable, she knew things were going from bad to worse as she saw chunks of warded stone explode on the viewfinder. "Wait," she turned to find him staring down at her with a grim set to his countenance, "You didn't think he had been to the dungeon before? Who, sir? Who do you think that is?"

The brunette put his hand on her shoulder and reached for the remote with the other, "You're not going to want to see this, but seeing is believing. This is it Botan, what my father warned would happen."

She almost began to argue that she could handle any situation, when he clicked the button and the screen settled on the culprit who was tearing into stone walls a half mile thick as though it were bread dough. Botan fell away in a dead faint when she saw the demon form of Yusuke Urameshi smirking into the camera, all fangs and markings, his hair dripping crimson with the blood of innocents and criminals alike.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two

"So you think he snuck in just to slaughter everyone and then break out? That doesn't sound like Yusuke at all!" Botan protested to Koenma, as they were hastily packing the most important contents of his desk into a suitcase.

"I don't understand it either, but it's what's happening and if we don't get out of here, we might be next!"

Botan huffed indignantly, but continued helping set plans in motion for the evacuation of their main headquarters, that included ferrying herself and a few chief staff to Genkai's temple in the human world for safekeeping. They would set up shop there and attempt to get to the bottom of this crisis, getting the old team back together to hopefully protect them from their former leader. She wasn't sure they had even seen each other since a few weeks after the demon world tournament had ended, and Enki's reign had begun.

Botan stubbornly refused to believe that Yusuke would hurt her, or the princeling, but the hollow bloodythirsty gaze frozen in time on their viewing screen had her doubting that Yusuke's mental state was entirely stable.

"Botan!"

She looked up solemnly, watching as Koenma snapped the heavy clasps shut on his case and handed it off to George, who began lugging it away while lamenting the end of his short live of servitude.

"It's all over now! I've barely had any fun at all and here I am about to be blown to smithereens, oh, this is just so terrible. Why does this always happen to me?"

Koenma only had eyes for her, and her dark purple gaze was aflame with quiet determination that was not her usual modus operandi.

"I need you to go on ahead, find Kuwabara, and get Kurama and Hiei to Genkai's. She's already expecting us but we're going to need some serious firepower if Yusuke is after us. We have less than a quarter of an hour before he breaks through the last defenses and I don't know what he wants. He won't answer me over the loudspeaker, and he's murdered everything he's set his eyes on since we realized he was in the block."

"Sir, don't you think one of us should try and go down there to talk to him? Maybe he just doesn't realize what's going on."

The look she got then indicated perhaps she was the one gone mad.

"If you go down there, I have no doubt he will erase you from existence. It's too dangerous for any of us to confront him, even with the full backing of the SDF, many more lives could be lost than we can afford to lose."

His hazel eyes softened a little, "You are irreplaceable, let the team handle the dangerous work, you just stay safe on the sidelines."

Botan had been unusually quiet since she had awoken, the thrum of anxiety still running high and the heavy weight of reality crushing her usual cheer beneath it. Plastering on a smile, she summoned her oar and swept onto it.

"I'll assemble the boys, you get to safety too sir! You can count on me!"

She shot through the open door, zigging and zagging around in the crowd of panic, til the ceiling got higher and she could fly above it.

The warm and wonderful weather did nothing to dispel the horrible gloom she wore like a cloak, foreboding hanging on her every thought. Yusuke had been a formidable fighter as a human, but as an S-class demon powerhouse, one of the Three Kings, he was borderline unstoppable. /What will happen to him now? Why is doing this?/ She had so many questions and absolutely no answers. As she passed through the portal into human world and zipped across the Kaiden skyline, she couldn't help but worry for the safety of her other friends as well. What f Yusuke was so far out of his mind that they were in danger too? As she came to a hover outside of Kuwabara's window, she noticed something that she hadn't before. His room was empty. Not just empty of life but devoid of evidence that anyone lived there. The bed was stripped to bare mattress, the Megallica posters missing, even Eikichi's food dish was gone. She was fairly certain that something had been mentioned at one time or another about Yukina coming to stay with the Kuwabara family, so finding the room she expected them to share empty was puzzling. Her oar drifted to another window of the house, where Shizuru's things were as they always were, although she wasn't in her room either. /That's odd.../ Botan thought to herself as she floated towards the back of the house, and finally caught a whiff of cigarette smoke. Under the pergola on their rear patio, the eldest Kuwabara sibling was smoking while texting on her cell phone.

"Shizuru! Oh thank goodness." She landed in front of her and banished her oar. "I'm looking for Kuwabara, something's happened in spirit world and I desperately need to find him and the others!"

Shizuru's pale face looked as though she had seen a ghost, with her spiritual awareness, it was likely that she had a decent idea already of what was going on.

"Kazuma hasn't lived here for months, but I have no doubt that he can sense whatever's happening too. It's a strong feeling and I can just tell something really bad is about to happen." She blew a column of smoke straight up and eyed Botan up and down. "He lives at Genkai's with Yukina, I sent him a text so he knows you're on the way. You don't have to tell me what's going on if you don't want to... but... You look like hell, kid." Botan offered her a weak half smile, it taking more courage than she could muster to offer a comforting platitude. She gave it a half hearted attempt anyway.

"Yusuke is..." She took a deep breath and pressed her hands together over her thumping heart. "Yusuke is in trouble," she finished lamely.

Shizuru's thin eyebrow lifted in a dubious manner.

"Trouble? Isn't that his middle name?"

"Well it's more like he's lost his mind! I have to hurry or I don't know what will happen." Shizuru gave her a sympathetic look as she pulled on the crumpled collar of her kimono, "We'll figure something out. We always do." She loosened her braid and began scraping her hair up into a messy version of her normally quite sleek 'do. "If I can find Kurama and Hiei just as easily, then we'll be in business!"

She lifted one finger in the air and stated firmly, with a ghost of a smile, "Somehow it always goes the right way in the end and I have no doubt it will again this time!"

The brunette looked like she might call her on the obvious lie, before taking another long drag off her cigarette, and seeming to resign herself.

"Take care of yourself, and look out for my little bro. Tell him... Sometimes the fight isn't worth losing."

The cryptic warning gave Botan's heart an extra jump as her wooden transport reappeared in her right hand. She and Shizuru nodded to each other as she mounted up, then rocketed away towards the Minamino residence. By the time she was perched on Kurama's windowsill, looking in on his empty bedroom, she knew that Yusuke would have broken free of the prison. What would happen next, she hadn't the slightest idea.

"Kurama!" She called in a hushed tone, looking towards the closed en suite bathroom's door framed in light. It was only an hour from daybreak, yet finding the fox awake so early was rather unsettling. She called his name again, as her geta sandals made contact with the soft carpet in silence. She leaned her oar against the wall and took in the sight of his made bed, his organized desk with an envelope perched on it, and the impeccable state of his book cases. She briefly wondered about him making excuses to his mother for leaving in the middle of the night, her fear of being seen nonexistent, as she was invisible to any normal human. She had not forgotten her purpose or her haste, and she decided to risk disturbing him in his private quarters. Approaching the bathroom door with one hand extended, she thought to quietly knock on the door in hopes of hurrying their departure. What she wasn't expecting was the door to the hallway popping open, startling her into a retreat and admitting the ever composed redhead.

He held a slender finger to his lips, indicating silence, as his expressive emerald eyes gravely searched her face. He held up a communicator with his other hand, and swept towards the window, motioning for her to follow. Once he had jumped down to the street, and she flown, they began to speak quietly.

"Koenma has spoken with me directly about the situation, and has requested that you fly me to Genkai's at once. My apologies that we must not meet under better circumstances, but there is no time for pleasantries now."

"I can't believe that Yusuke would do something like this, Kurama. There's just no way!" She felt as though she might cry, her throat tight around the words, somehow hoping that the clever fox could put her fears to rest.

"Right now I don't know what to believe, except that we will get to the bottom of this. Hiei has already contacted me and is en route as well. We really must be going." He looked expectantly at her, as she mounted her oar and turned slightly sideways to him. With an inhuman grace, he sprang lightly into a side saddle position beside her, and gripped the handle on either side of his thighs with white knuckles. Botan looked him over once as their ascension began, noted the solemn set of his face figure, and she was ever so slightly comforted to know that Yusuke's friends were coming to his rescue.


	3. Chapter 3

Yo, KG33 here back with another installment of Identity Not Included! Looks like we got a follower now, so this isn't a complete waste of time. ;)

Cheers mate, looking forward to serving you better as my skills return and further develop!

Chapter 3

Upon arriving at Genkai's, Botan and Kurama found the rest of their expected compatriots already assembled. Koenma had informed those already present of the situation, and they were all awaiting a status update, or a decisive call to action. Koenma was knelt at their dining table with papers spread before him and his communication briefcase open. He was deep in quiet discussion with several advisors via the interlink and creases of stress all over his face an indicator that not much of the situation had improved.

He ran a hand through his mussed and tangled hazelnut hair, barely sparing them a glance as they entered the room. Seated across from him with a pot of steaming tea,

Genkai was silently mulling over the information she had been presented with. She did not open her eyes, nor make an sign that she was even aware of any others in the room. Kuwabara and Yukina were on the sofa, evidently debating whether or not to call Keiko and break the news to her. Yukina was in no hurry to destroy the relationship that Keiko had waited so many years to even begin. The two bantered back and forth in a subdued manner, Yukina pleading with Kuwabara to hold his tongue until they had discovered Yusuke's motivations, and in turn Kuwabara insisted otherwise.

"Keiko has a right to know that Urameshi's gone ballistic. It's totally not fair to keep her in the dark." He took up Yukina's tiny hands in his own and held them with all tenderness, "Maybe Keiko can get through to him, maybe he'll listen to her like he always has."

The ice maiden had a doubtful look upon her pale countenance but she quietly acquiesced.

"Kazuma, I can agree with you on one condition," he leaned a little closer as her voice fell even further, "that we wait for an update on his condition before we worry her unnecessarily."

Now it was Kuwabara's turn to look dubiously down at his lady friend, releasing her hands so she could tuck them neatly in her lap. "I don't think much is going to change now that he's busted outta jail, but I could never say no to you." Even in the most serious of situations, the tall ginger mooned over her, and his expression softened towards her as she spared him a small, tight smile.

Botan shook herself from her oblivious eavesdropping and moved further into the room, looking around as though she half-expected Yusuke to burst in and begin arguing with Koenma, insulting Genkai, and roughhousing with Kuwabara. When none of these things occurred, she turned her eyes to Kurama who was moving about the room in silence and brushing his fingertips idly across many ordinary objects contained within. Even Botan with her slow observational skills could see tiny things - seeds, she surmised- transfer into his hands from the things he tipped and swept about. She raised her sad purple eyes to the row of windows along the opposite wall, where Hiei sat with one leg up and his sword propped against his chest, his arms caged around it and his cheek lain against the glass. He was always a mysterious and brooding figure, but his abject lethargy was clear as he stared unblinking into the summer night sky.

With a sidelong glance at Koenma, Botan saw he was silently communicating with Genkai. The look they exchanged across the table was one of unreadable expression of determination, and it gave her a moment of pause. Turning to the roving redhead, she slipped her small hand from her oversized pink sleeve and touched his arm as he passed.

When his striking emerald eyes turned on her, she stammered out in a small voice, "What will we do if... if Yusuke isn't okay?"

"I'm afraid you won't like the answer to that," he said, placing his hand over hers. "We'll do what we can for him, but we'll also have to protect our loved ones from him if the need arises."

His eyes searched her face and his grip on her hand tightened, "Yusuke has committed serious offenses against spirit world, and it's very possible that even if we are able to spare him in battle, King Enma may have very different feelings about the subject."

"Be-because he has already spared his life twice, and he is a mazoku?"

"Get over here, all of you," Genkai ordered in a solemn tone, not raising her head to look about her.

Kurama nodded at and then shook the bluenette off, turning to step lightly to the table and kneel down. Once situated, he looked back to her as she followed and joined him, both looking expectantly at Koenma. As the demi-god raised his eyes from the last of his conversations, and met their eyes, he looked over to Kuwabara and motioned him to also sit with them.

Presented with a table of the former Renkai Tantei's team, Koenma observed each of them in turn, also seeking out Hiei and meeting his eyes for a moment across the small space.

"I never thought I would have to say this, but... we have to kill Yusuke. Before he kills anyone else."

"Hey! Wait a minute, we're not even going to try and talk to him?!" Kuwabara slammed both his hands down on the table, half starting up from his spot.

"We can't just go and kill the guy without giving him a chance to explain himself!"

"I'm afraid then matter is far more complicated than that. Every inmate interred in the entire block was torn to pieces, so much so that we cannot even begin to identify them. The guards? The same. Every being he has encountered since this began has met with a similar fate. Destruction."

After an outraged grunt Kuwabara asked, "Why's he doing this?"

"I don't know," came the hesitant reply.

"What's the extent of the damages outside the prison?" queried Botan. Again came the reply, "I don't know. Everyone of any importance has been evacuated to the living world or shut up in my father's chambers."

"Do you have any useful information at all?" Hiei questioned with an irritated glance. Botan interjected before Koenma could answer, "It's not like Yusuke to go on a senseless murder spree! There has to be some explanation!"

The demi-god looked about himself again, puzzling over an explanation he could not give.

"Perhaps, he has his own reasons, or perhaps he has lost control of himself." Kurama laid his hands on the table and inspected them. "Perhaps we will not ever know why this has occurred."

Hiei grunted his assent, his crimson stare passing over Yukina as she sat silently aside from them on the sofa. "I don't care what he does to Reikai, or why, but do not underestimate the detective's newfound blood thirst. The brat is right, we have to end this before it gets out of hand."

Botan couldn't believe her ears as the friends of her own heart planned the destruction of their lynch pin. She stared at each of their solemn faces, pausing just a beat too long on Koenma who offered her a sympathetic look, before she leapt up from the table and brandished her oar.

"If you won't believe in Yusuke, then I will!"

With that, she was flying full speed out of the building before she had even fully seated herself on the handle.

"Botan!" Koenma had cried after her, but she was already deafened by the wind rushing past her ears.

Genkai was the last the speak before they began afresh in planning Yusuke Urameshi's demise, "Let her tire herself out, it's a fool's errand she isn't so stupid as to run headlong into such a dangerous situation."

The raised eyebrow on Koenma's face indicated he thought otherwise, but with no ability to call her back, he let her go into the night unsure of what she would do next.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey! Thanks for the review Peonyrose. :) I'm excited to start winding it up and I promise this is going to be a heckuva story if y'all stick with it!

Chapter four

Botan leapt from her oar outside of Keiko's paren's restaurant just as the first glimmer of dawn broke the city's spell of darkness. She made to rap her knuckles on the door when the window above it opened, and Keiko looked down on her from above. More annoyed than amused, the brunette's face appeared fresh and alight even for so early an hour.

"Keiko! You have to get dressed, it's about Yusuke!" Botan whisper-shouted up to her with her hands cupped to her mouth. Keiko clutched at her silky blue pajama top with both hands over her heart and an irate gleam in her eyes.

"What has that idiot gone and done now?! I just sent him home five minutes ago!" Keiko was being far too loud for someone who probably wished to not wake the whole neighborhood.

Botan's mouth fell open and she was uncharacteristically speechless for a moment. Keiko leaned further out the window, looked down the street in the direction she must have sent him off and shouted, "Yusuke you jerk! Get back here and fix whatever you've broken now!"

Botan glanced from her friend's face to the empty sidewalk stretching away into the distance, then back again.

"Whatever do you mean?"

"He was just here, he woke me up half an hour ago asking about getting some breakfast after he got kicked out of his mom's AGAIN. This time for breaking a full bottle into the sink! He knows how Atsuko feels about him interfering, not that I can say I blame him but really-"

"Keiko, I don't mean to cut you off, but he was here? In living world?" The ferry girl's face was slowly unfurling into a disbelieving smile and she rested her palms on her cheeks, a rush of relief shot through her as her hope crescendoed.

"Yeah. Botan... why are you making that weird face?"

"I'll tell you later! I have to catch up to Yusuke before he gets himself killed!" Botan was on her oar and off again across the street, waving off Keiko's questioning with a mixture of gladness and worry. As she rounded a corner, dodging people who could not see her, she gained elevation and spotted a very familiar red coat with it's white collar turned up.

"Well if it isn't Mr. Urameshi himself! In the flesh!"

She hovered in front of him with the cheeriest disposition, her eyes nearly closed from the force of her cheeks pushing them upward. Every pearly tooth in her head was on display to the young man with his hands shoved in his trousers pockets.

"Hey Botan! Did my mom send you to drag me to hell? Makes sense seein as she was mad enough." He chuckled and shifted from one foot to the other in his usual cocky manner.

"Now is no time for jokes Mister," she scolded, "Everyone is at Genkai's preparing to go to spirit world and kill you!"

"Ha ha ha, real funny Botan. Seriously, why are you here? It's the ass crack of dawn and I'm tired, so let's get to the point. Pacifier breath got some crazy bad guy bent on destroying the world?"

"You have no idea how right you are! We really can't stand around wasting time when the others could be in danger. I'm not kidding Yusuke! Let's go, and I'll explain on the way."

The confident smile slipped from his face and in it's place rose a more morose and serious stare, he reached out a hand to grip the blade of her oar and she pulled them both into the sky. /It must be pretty serious if it has Botan's panties in a twist,/ thought Yusuke as he stared at her ponytail flapping in the current.

Meanwhile, Botan was all in a tizzy trying to find the words to share with him the situation she and the others were currently mired in. A situation they believed he had caused, and yet here he was safe and accounted for in a whole 'nother realm from the horrific scene in question. What on earth was happening?

"Yusuke, everyone thinks you've broke out of spirit world prison!" Botan shouted down to him as she cleared the city, heading towards Genkai's at nearly her top speed.

"What do you mean, 'broke out of prison?' I wasn't in prison to begin with!" He roared back.

"That's not the problem, the problem is that you're killing everyone!"

The shock, horror, and then anger that crossed his features in rapid succession were palpable to the bluenette pilot as she looked down on him from her wooden perch. His white knuckles on the blade of her oar, and the grim set to his mouth told her that the time for talking was over. Now, it was time to kick ass. He released his grip before they were completely over the forest that bordered the lawns of the temple, and he rolled effortlessly to his feet as he landed. White trainers pounded across the grass, tearing up small clusters of it in his wake as one furious ex spirit detective kicked through the sliding door of the temple and stood shaking with rage before his friends.

Words cannot accurately describe the reactions his former tournament teammates displayed as one very dangerous threat was suddenly, literally, barging through their door. A spirit sword flashed to life, a rose whip lashed and coiled, a steel blade was drawn as the purple glow of the Jagan illuminated the dawn-dipped porch beyond him, and for a moment all was still. Both Kuwabara and Hiei were between Yusuke and Yukina, Koenma and Genkai were still kneeling at the table, their eyes turned to him in fear and query respectively. It seemed as though nothing might happen, the teen standing his ground with his hands balled into fists at his sides, and the others with their weapons drawn ready to strike should they be struck at. Finally Botan clattered onto the scene and took a post between the opposing sides, "I told you!" she panted. "I told you Yusuke wasn't capable of doing this but nobody believed me."

Yusuke looked at all of them, and then shoved his fists into his coat pockets, cocked one knee to the side and then made it a point not to look at anyone.

"You guys sure have a lot of faith in me. I don't even know what the hells really going on but it's good to know my friends will have my back if it ever needs to be knifed." The last few words were a little rougher than he meant them to be, the hurt in his chest buried under years of practiced gruffness. Kuwabara took a step forward, and lowered his sword but did not banish it.

"Urameshi, is that really you?"

Yusuke snorted, "Of course it's me, what? You don't recognize me after just a couple weeks? A guy can't have a little vacation to demon world without becoming Reikai's most wanted?"

Koenma rose up with something out of his briefcase and cast it gently in Yusuke's direction, watching as it bounced once and then rolled directly past him and off the steps.

"Well, that orb is attracted to freshly spilled blood and it's not chasing you... how is this possible? I saw you with my own eyes, tearing apart guards and breaking your way through the dungeon defenses."

Yusuke eyed the princeling over as more weapons disappeared before him, "Good to know you haven't lost your eye sight with age, now how about you get me through a portal to spirit world and I'll show this imposter exactly how I feel about breaking things?." He pounded one fist into his open palm.

"There isn't room enough in this existence for more than one of me."


	5. Chapter 5

This chapter was unsustainably written under duress and legitimately sucks, but I'm getting the hang of plotting. The next story will be better wording and the characters more in depth, but I'm going to finish off this one in itooriginal style to keep it from becoming confusing! Excited for the ending? Me too. It's about to get trigger warning in chapter 6, so be ready!

Chapter 5

The question was no longer how to bring down Yusuke, but how to bring down this enraged imposter. The furious teen being impersonated had no rationale left to plan a battle with, but the others were emboldened by his reappearance and the knowledge they would not fight a fight they were unsure of winning. Their group was spread about the outer reaches of the temple's main house, Koenma, Kuwabara, Yusuke and Genkai all stood on the grass near the garden, looking out at the trees as the still low morning sun bathed them in its warm light. Soon, it would be uncomfortably hot and bright, but the breeze still held a cool touch as it rushed across the grounds. It would be comfortable enough until their departure. The ever present air of hurry and doom hung heavily across them, no end in sight yet to what was promising to be a very long day.

Hiei was seated on the porch railing, looking about as disinterested as possible, but his keen hearing was tuned to the conversation at hand. At his side, Kurama was strategizing for their attack. Seated in a wooden deck chair with his long legs crossed, and his hands folded nearly on his knee, he was mentally cataloging his seeds and deciding what they might do as a group to prevent the escapee from reaching living world. He was not about to let any other threat to his mother or her new family reach this plane of their existence. He had nothing to add to the chatter as they waited, Yusuke was far too fired up to hear reason and Kuwabara often as useful in battle as an old boot. Though nobody but Hiei had the lack of tact to say so. Kurama mused over what he might do if this devilish demon were to use similar powers to Yusuke's, having been unsure himself as to who would win a one-on-one between himself and the former.

"Remember that we have no idea what kind of power we're dealing with now," Koenma said as they were still awaiting the SDF's portal to the Reikai prison proper. "When we believed it to be the real Yusuke," he said with a doleful glance at the named person, "We knew what to expect."

The glare Yusuke sent his way could have melted an ice maiden, but he kept his mouth shut and his arms crossed. Kuwabara glanced between the two of them and sheepishly scratched his head, "You know you guys could cut the tension here with a knife... heh heh. That's not to say you won't make up but is this really the time?"

"I couldn't think of a better time," Yusuke retorted haughtily. "He voted to send me to an early grave, and tried to use you guys to do it."

"I'm not saying it's right but somebody's gotta make the tough choices. Besides Urameshi, you're here now and that's what matters. We're gonna get the bad guy like we always do and then you two can settle your differences like men."

"Yah, by me smashing his face in," muttered Yusuke. Kuwabara was about to begin a lecture on how improper fisticuffs would be as Koenma was a non-fighter, but he was interrupted by two SDF officers arriving. Saito and Sorai, in their identical gray and black uniforms, alighted on foot just feet from Koenma and startled him from his brooding.

"Lord Koenma, sir!" They chirped in unison, "We are here to provide an escort, under King Enma's orders."

"Yes, yes thank you. We'll be ready to leave immediately." Koenma turned to the others, raising his voice unnecessarily to be heard by Hiei and Kurama further back from the speaker.

"It's time to-" Hiei and Kurama were both before him as his sentence hung unfinished, both having vaulted the railing and crossed the space faster than he could follow. He started back a step from their proximity but made an excellent show of not being scared. "If you're all ready then, I'll see you off before I seal myself into my father's chambers as well. He'll certainly need my help sorting out this mess once the worst is over... Speaking of help. Has anyone seen Botan?" He looked around as though he had just noticed that she didn't follow them outside, even though they had been outside for a good while now. Nobody asserted that they had, so he motioned to Saito to wait for him and slipped through the small crowd to the door, where he peeped in and called, "Yukina! Have you seen Botan? It's time for us to leave."

From the kitchen he heard a small shaky voice call, "No, she isn't with me!" Inclined to wonder why she sounded so distressed, he crossed the threshold towards the kitchen and caught sight of something bright in the hallway. A tail of powder blue hair scampering away, or so it appeared.

"Botan!" He hollered, turning, "Now is not the time for games, we are still in a crisis!"

Nobody responsed, and so he rolled his eyes as he dutifully trotted down the hallway with the intention of scolding the bluenette so severely for wasting what little precious time they still had. Having had no more updates for nearly an hour, Koenma was unaware of the state of the situation and would not be up to speed until he entered King Enma's temple to be safely hidden til the danger had passed. He rounded the corner and stopped dead in his tracks, his feet almost stepping on the edge of a shredded piece of cloth. A very familiar pink piece of cloth, that lay tattered and torn across the polished wooden floor, the white fabric of a similarly destroyed obi lying strewn beneath it. The haphazardly lost garments even had a small trace of blood and moisture on them, as he now held them in his hands without knowing how they got there.

His horror turned to desperation and he began flinging open the sliding doors and screaming in a most unmanly manner for help, for Botan, and for divine intervention. Empty bedrooms, a bathroom, the video game room and a storage room of neatly stacked boxes were what he saw. Nothing out of order, no obvious hiding places or responses from the missing woman. In a state of shock, having not found her in any rooms in that branch of the temple, he met Yusuke and Kuwabara in the passage back to the main room still clutching her ruined clothes. He could see Kurama in the living area, looking at the scene unfolding before him as the black blur of Hiei passed through the rooms and into the kitchen.

Yusuke had one look at the clothes clutched in Koenma's hands, then a second.

"Is she running around here naked?" He said half jokingly, as he fully absorbed the pallid face of the prince. The hands gripped deathly white into the pink garment held it out, the fresh blood stain exposed to all present.

"She's gone," he said in a low and despairing voice, "I can't find her anywhere."

Kuwabara's head seemed to turn 180 degrees on his shoulders as he started back in then other direction.

"YUKINA!" He cried, "YUKINA MY LOVE, ARE YOU OKAY?" Bolting away towards the kitchen, he disappeared around the corner and was off. Yusuke slung his arm around Koenma and pulled him from the temple, out onto the porch where he sank dejectedly into a chair.

"Who's taken her? Where could she be?" It sounded as though he was beyond crying, staring down at his lapful of what was left of Botan.

"We'll do something. We've got to do something," muttered Yusuke.

The brunette seemed not to hear him, dropping his fave into a clean fold of her kimono, "She's always been my favorite... always so cheerful and dedicated. We'll never get on without her." Yusuke stood at his sad, looking a little dumbstruck by this development and at a loss for words when Kuwabara exploded through the door behind them and bellowed, "THEY GOT YUKINA!"

With his arms above his held and a torn blue kimono fluttering over him, he looked every bit a super hero ready to dive into the battle. His eyes aflame with determination, he looked at Yusuke and Koenma, "We have to get to the girls, and I know where to start!" Up came the pinky finger of his right hand and he stared at it in awe. "Their first mistake was taking Botan, their last mistake will be taking my sweet Yukina! There isn't anywhere she can go that I can't find her!"

Hiei was between them in an instant with his hand on the hilt of his sword beneath his cloak.

"Waste no time talking then, you fool. I'll cut off your hand and use it as a tracking device if you don't get on with it." His third eye, which had yet to be covered again after his face off with Yusuke, rolled open and began to glow. "I may need your help, but it's rather unlikely." Hiei's focus left his physical state and traveled to the ever-fainter signal of his sister.

"The women are together, in your office." His crimson gaze struck down on Koema like a physical blow.

Kurama put his hand on Koenma's shoulder and looked at Yusuke, Hiei, and Kuwabara in turn.

"Lead the way, Hiei, but I think it would be best if we left the defense force to take Koenma along to his own destination." Upon their eyes turning out to the forest, they had a group realization that one of the SDF officers was gone, and the other was half-frozen in place by a short spire of ice that extended the entire left side of his body and covered the majority of his face.

Sorai's bald head glinted with perspiration as he breathed hard into the ice through his nose to clear his face and allow for him to fully utilize his mouth, and clear his airway. Saito was nowhere to be found. Panic rose like bile into Koenma's throat and he surged from the seat to charge down the lawn to his aid, although his attempts to free the officer were pathetic at best.

"Don't consider this to be in your best interest," Hiei sneered as he made short work of the ice, "Open the fucking portal and we'll go, you sort out the brat and the ferry girl yourself."

With a stern countenance, Kurama agreed, "It is not wise to delay, if this convict was able to slip past us to take Yukina, and Botan, then we must make haste and yet proceed with caution. Tell me, what did you see before you were frozen?"

Sorai, soaked and shaking from his ordeal, raised his hands in a plea of forgiveness. "It was the three women! Botan, and two young women, koorime I believe, one of them took Saito and twisted him round her arm! It was unreal. She barely looked at me and I was frozen solid! She made an opening herself and the four of them disappeared, it was just... it was just unbelievable. An ice maiden shouldn't have the power to so easily manhandle someone like me. Her aura was so intense that I was nearly killed by the ice before I'd had a chance to begin raising my body temperature to free myself."

"I don't understand," announced Kuwabara, "I thought the ice maidens didn't leave their village?"

"They usually don't," replied Kurama, "but it appears this may be a special case."

Saito was already powering up and illuminating them with the tear in space time that allowed them to travel between realms.

Koenma stood back hugging the formless clothing, with Saito as the others jumped headlong into the portal and disappeared from living world on a mission to search, rescue, destroy and deliver.


End file.
